nowhere indeed
by aleushadrake
Summary: seto kaiba on his way to a meeting in california, he looks around the plane and sees a briefcase beside the door that doesn't seem to belong to anyone. the suitcase blows up the plane smashes into the ground, but kaiba lived. he says "where am i?" the woman laughs and says "nowhere really..."


Nowhere indeed

he knows this wont end well- he probably wont live. He is suddenly very happy with his decision not allow Mokie to tag along like he so desperately wanted to. America. He isn't even positive about where exactly he is, not where he should be, landing in California.

A toy store there wanted to start introducing his merchandise, he wasn't sure how much he trusted the person on the he decided to meet them in person. More importantly he wonders how long this fall will be, hes terrified, knuckles white as he grips the arm of his chair. The other hand is wrapped firmly around an oxygen mask while hyperventilates through the turbulence that rattles his private jet. Even more pressing than that he knows something is a miss he heard a tick a moment ago from a suitcase that didn't seem to belong to anyone.

Saw it explode against the door and he went deaf, but can still feel the wind shrieking past him. He brought four guards with him, three of which went out the door being ripped from their tightly belted seats. The ground rushes up to meet him and his last remaining guard. Then. It happens, just like that. Fire blooms around him- as if in slow motion he watches it happen and for once cant stop it. Cant dig his hand into it and take control. This is what bothers him most.

His eyes open ,something sticky on his eyelids, and now- now it hurts very thing hurts and burns. He looks up the sky is clouded out by dark gray rolling towers of rising smoke. He coughs and feels the burn all the way down in his chest,he tries to raise his arm to move, only realize, hes stuck. Wedged between the seats, the one in which he is sitting slowly falling forward, squeezing the little remaining air out of him.

The plane is a rumpled heap, littered with shrapnel,in front of him the last guard sits. A chunk of plastic from the interior of the plane sticking out of their neck. He cant see much, it burns to keep his eyes open, then he realizes he can hear again. Because some one is yelling, yelling to see if there's anyone alive. He feels heart begin to race, it hurts but he tries to shout back.

Voice isn't really working, all that escapes is strangled groan, then. The seat falls forward, he shuts his eyes. He hears a grunt and opens his eyes to see a silhouette with its hands on either side of his head, pushing the seat back. The hands so close to his face he notes, have black fingernails with red thin red stripes painted on. He hears them talking but cant make out what their saying, whoever it is they sound like heaven.

He doesn't know how long its been but, hes somewhere else now. In a room that's...silver?no its some color. He blinks rapidly to adjust his eyes, it of course hurts. The walls are whitish... the paint is riddled with cracks that stem from one corner all the way across the room to the other like a massive spiderweb. He lets his head loll lazily to the side, the room is rather small now that he actually looks at it. On the far wall beside the window that has a sheet thrown over it is bookcase,black with plastic caps hiding where the screws are.

Only three of the it's five shelves are laden with books, the rest have things.. knick knacks, a snow globe with a little cartoonish personification of little red riding hood. A porcelain fairy sits on the moon, her lavender colored gown the spine of the figurine, making the moon looks as if its hovering over the wood base. Then a cracked photo frame the image of which he cant make out. He sees something whittled in the top shelf its a light unvarnished bit of wood, too high for him to see at that angle. The books... are all stories, a thicker volume dark blue with whimsical gold print that reads

'grim'

next to the bookcase pressed against the neighboring wall is a set of drawers, this time varnished, complete looking. It has fanciful carvings , thin and thick flourishing across the sides and front as if the indentation's where painted on with the finest brush. All the way across from that is a desk. A rigid worn in looking thing as if its held together with sheer willpower.

On top of this sad looking thing are clothes, a white sleeveless trench coat burned in places, stitched back together in other places. Black pants he knows are his, under the desk are his boots, clean and shined. On the floor next to them is a round tin of black shoeshine and a dirty rag, he wonder's who would do that. Ah but most importantly just behind them the satellite phone he had stowed in his trench coat pocket, he makes a note that his gun is nowhere in sight.

He hears creaking noise, and sees the door sliding open- someone holding a red serving tray with a picture of a rooster on it. Over that rooster is white bowl with a blue loop on the rim filled with strange soup. The one ray of light in the room leaking in from the corner of the window falls in front of their face. The light blurs his vision, all he notes is that she has blond hair. She places the tray down on a stool beside the bed, then pulls his blanket back running her fingers over the bandages wrapped around his chest.

"good , still clean."

he exhales and tries to ask who she is, where he is, all that comes out is a strange grunt,she stops and looks at him.

"your awake?"

she leans to look at his face, in his eyes. Her layered half curly hair falls down her shoulders blotting out most of her face. But what remains. It strikes him like a hammer, he breathes heavily as he looks into brightest shade of green hes ever had the good fortune of seeing.

"hey there mister?"

she blinks still very close, what long curved eyelashes- the kind that makes other girls jealous. The inspiration for false lashes. He feel's her hand brush against his cheek, the back of her hand,he sees those pretty nails again.

" who?"

he tries to say more but slurs the rest. Her green eyes go wide, her eyes are smiling. She stands up in a quick motion clapping her hands together.

"yes! You want to know my name! Im so happy you finally came to the last few days have been rather odd."

he squints up at her.

"days?"

"yes I found your plane out there at least three days ago."

he looks at her mortified. She shifts uneasily from side to side.

"it could'uh been like a week, but your a pretty tough cookie. an you kept talking about a mokie... what a mokie?"

he blinks blearily upward.

"mokuba..my brother."

his voice cracks while he attempts to speak. He feels her stiffen in place.

"im sorry, you the only one I pulled out, no one else was..."

she trails off

"he wasn't with me."

he hears her let out a breath he didn't know she was holding.

"oh good, I got scared. So mister-"

"se- toh"

he coughs, feeling the pain in his chest and throat flare up.

"what?"

"my name, its seto kaiba"

"well mister kaiba I brought you some dinner if your feeling up to it."

he looks at her with his half lidded gaze and asks just as she get's up to leave.

"where am I?"

"pretty much nowhere. Were not in any city limits- out past yuma almost by the mountains. Their nice mountains, I like hiking every now n again."

he looks at her bewildered.

"whats a yuma?"

she laughs, it sound's like birds chirping on Sunday morning, when he sleeps in for an extra hour.

" your in Arizona, not much out this way though. And this here house is in what used to be the Jawbreaker ranch."

she leaves without shutting the door, he can hear her going about her business. The smell of the soup wafts over to his direction, he shifts uncomfortably, pushing himself up on his elbows. The bed is soft enough not to cause him pain as he does this, after a bit careful shifting hes managed to put himself into a sitting position. Against kaibas thighs he feels more wrapping of bandages, looking under the blankets he sees gray pajamas bottoms, a bit to short for him.

He sips the soup slowly, only just realizing he should be filthy... unless... she or someone here gave him a bath. He feels his face flush at the thought of this woman, (whose name he didn't get) bathing him. Examining his wrappings, seto comes to the conclusion that his caretaker must be accustomed to treating injuries, his fingers trail over raised stitches.

Sticking out from the bottom of the too short pajama bottoms he sees more bandages wrapped around his ankles. Setting down the empty bowl he sighs tiredly, then feel his whole body tense up as a large thing with horns walks by the window. Again all he sees is shadow... then it makes a very odd sound.

His thoughts go something along the lines of

'ranch. I'm at a ranch that's a cow. Or a bull. Please be a cow. That doesn't sound like a moo. Why do people say cows go moo?'

the sheet moves forward, he sees a wide nostrilled reddish brown snout poke in. kaibas eyes go as wide as saucers when he realizes there no glass. It begins to nibble on the sheet,it shakes its head violently to the side tearing the sheet off the wall. This results in a very loud shredding sound, the woman's feet clamor in the other room and she rushes in, wrapping the sheet around her hand and yanking it back into the room, slapping the bulls cheek and shouting

"YOU STOP DAT NOW! GET BACK IN YOUR PEN GET ON NOW GO!"

it makes the bizarre noise that irks kaiba once again then turns to leave in some direction or another. She leans out what he realizes is not a window, just a massive hole in the wall and shouts while pointing in some direction or another.

"NO! I SAID PEN! DONCHOO MAKE ME GO OUT THERE!"

with that she slaps the wall and the bull hurries off in the opposite direction. She turns to look at him only to find kaiba with his back flat against the wall trying desperately to get further away from that thing. He feels the muscle under his right eye twitch violently. He continues watching the bull shuffle away as she laughs loudly placing her hand over her mouth.

"calm down now, kevins gone sweetie..."

her voice trails off for just a moment.

"my, don't you have the bluest eyes I've ever seen."

finally , finally kaiba looks at her, too see glossy hair framing a semi round face. Glossy full pink lips curved into a smile, she has full breasts pressed down by the too tight fabric of her work shirt. Worn in blue jeans cling to her wide hips, the inner thighs of which are worn down to the white threads. On her feet are dusty construction yellow work boots with thick brown laces. Kaiba tries desperately to keep his voice even when he asks

"whyyyyy! Is there a giant hole in the wall? And who are YOU!"

he slowly lowers his arms from their place clinging to the wall for dear life. She laughs lightly this time, rubbing her thumb across the side of her button like nose.

"my name is Blanca."

she says it as if its the most obvious thing ever, then opens her mouth to speak again only to be cut off the dull ringing sound of kaibas thin black satellite phone. Kaiba tries to get up only to be rewarded with hot pain from his abdomen. She takes one step then leans down grabbing the phone from behind kaibas boots, handing it to him. Kaibas hands fumble clumsily as he trys to fold his hand around the phone without hurting them. He only manages to press his thumb down on the speaker button.

"seto! SETO! HELLO"

its mokuba, panicking into the phone. Sounding as if hes been crying non stop for far too long.

"mokuba? Mokie- calm d-"

"oh my gawd seto your alive! I was so scared wheres-"

" im alive, somewhere in arizona. This woman found me."

"woman? Arizona- you where supposed to go to California what woman?"

"her name is Blanca, and it looks like she patched me up pretty good."

"seto, dont come home yet. Dont call here or the company."

mokubas tone has darkened, and hes lowered himself to a whisper.

"why? mokie whats going on?"

" when you left and I stayed I went to your office to back up the files like you said but when I got there,

some one was sitting your chair."

"who was in my office, did they get into my computer?"

" It didn't sound like it, I could hear them typing but they kept getting mad and madder- I don't think they figured out your password."

"I have seven."

he hears Mokuba trying not to laugh at this comment.

"your so paranoid, you would do that."

"i appear to have done correctly though."

"I dont think they even got past the first one. I even heard them say 'the hell kind of hint is that!'"

"mokie, does he know I'm alive?"

"no, no one does. They already cleaned up the crash. You where on the new's and everything."

"if that was the case then why did you call my phone?"

"the body they used... didn't look right. I knew it wasn't you. Don't your worry Seto, this time I'll take

care of everything."

"mokie, you need to lock that office down, if they get in there they can take the company away from you."

" I already backed it up and wiped the drive- but I left the password lock on it."

"good boy mokie."

"I'll figure this out and get back to you ok seto, be careful stay where you are- use a different name. I

don't want them to find you. I know you want to take care of this yourself but you cant let them know your alive just yet."

Seto stays quiet for a moment feeling something burn in the corners of his eyes.

"mokie you tread carefully and you remember everything I taught you. Alright."

there it is, all the control he has over the situation.

"ok seto."

Seto nods slightly , then hears the line go dead. He presses the phone shut then realizes Blanca never left the room, she looks at him quizzically.

"well whats up? Family know your safe?"

It dawns on him that the conversation had been in Japanese... she didn't understand a word of it. He stares at her confused and not knowing in the slightest how to explain the situation. She sits down on the edge of the bed looking at him with deep concern.

" that plane crash... it was an accident... right?"

kaiba clenches his jaw tightly fighting not to let the storm behind his eyes loose, and slowly shakes his head.

" I own a company."

he starts from where he would consider a decent beginning. She just looks at him intensely hanging to every accented word that comes out of his mouth. By the time he gets to where they are now, he sees her knuckles have turned white. Her hands clenched tightly into fists held steadily on her lap. Kaiba wonders if those fist's will break his jaw, because it sounds like such an unbelievable story. He wouldn't believe himself he where her. She stands up quickly and says to him in a firm voice.

"you stay here as long as you need! Ill teach you a few things so when you finally get yourself home you can whoop some ass!"

He feels shock. Why did she believe him? His muscles all ache and the room is cold now, with the sheet plucked off the open wall. He lays down, his mind buzzing with so many thoughts hes sure he'll never sleep again, until he opens his eyes realizing he hadn't a clue when he'd fallen asleep. The sound he wakes to is a slight slapping noise and a strange wet odor.

Over by where hole was, he sees Blanca smoothing out the edges of a patch with a metal scraping spatula and white putty. He pushes himself up into a sitting position with ginger movements.

"when you feel up to it your gonna wanna walk around a bit, or you'll get bedsores."

she says without looking back at him. He nods even though she cant see him.

"may I use your bathroom?"

kaibas time here passes slowly while he heals up, doing little more than trying to make his muscles work properly. He walks along the narrow hallway of the old house that creaks at night, nothing there are at least four bedrooms and a den. The doors are always closed accept for the one he occupies, he wonder's if anyone else lives there.

okay for those of you who enjoyed this story i humbly ask that you say so. this was a semi sort of request from some time ago, the request was setoxoc. that was it thats all i had to work with. but i have sort of lost the love for it because the requestee has yet exist in the world since the actual request. so if you peepers like it tell me so and ill clean this up and breathe life into it again okay loves?


End file.
